(Eagle News) — More areas in the country, particularly in Luzon and the Visayas regions, were placed under the higher Alert Level 3 following the noted increase in COVID-19 cases in these areas.
Based on the latest resolution of the Inter-Agency Task Force, certain areas from the Cordillera Administrative Region, and Regions 1 to 7, were escalated to Alert Level 3 that would take effect on Sunday, January 9 until January 15. These are the following:
CAR: Baguio City;
Region I: Dagupan City;
Region II: City of Santiago, and Cagayan;
Region III: Angeles City, Bataan, Olongapo City, Pampanga, and Zambales;
Region IV-A: Batangas, and Lucena City;
Region V: Naga City;
Region VI: Iloilo City; and
Region VII: Lapu-lapu City*
* Subject to immediate allocation of additional dedicated beds for COVID-19
According to the IATF Resolution no. 156-A, the IATF approved “the recommendations of the sub-Technical Working Group on Data Analytics” that escalated the alert level 3 in these areas effective January 9 until January 15.
Before this, the provinces of Laguna, Bulacan, Cavite and Rizal were placed under Alert Level 3 until January 15. Earlier, Metro Manila was also escalated to Alert Level 3 following a spike in COVID-19 cases.
The decision to place the additional areas from CAR to Regions 1 to 7 under Alert Level 3 was discussed in a video-conference meeting of the IATF on Thursday, January 6.
The IATF Resolution was signed by Health Secretary and IATF chair Francisco Duque III and IATF co-chair Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexei Nograles.
The Philippines reported a high of 17,220 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, January 6, and a new record-high of COVID-19 positivity rate at 36.9 percent.
In the latest case bulletin of the Department of Health, the total active cases have also risen to 56,561 or two percent of the total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began in March 2020.
The DOH has also reported the detection of 29 more Omicron variant cases on Thursday, January 6, bringing the total confirmed Omicron cases to 43.
Of the 29 new Omicron cases, 19 are local cases with addresses from Metro Manila, while 10 are returning overseas Filipinos (ROFs). The DOH is currently checking the health status of all the passengers in the flights where the 10 confirmed Omicron cases had been on.
More Omicron variant cases, however, are suspected to be still undetected and are driving the current COVID-19 case spike.
(Eagle News Service)